Even the Best Fall and Break
by NRZWolf 13
Summary: The fall of one regime and the story of a second. There is a broken world before them and a falling warrior they must save... At any cost. / Now a challenge fic, read inside for details \\
1. In My Time of Dying

**Well, my first RE fic and is set sometime after RE 5. It will be Chris' P.O.V throughout apart from one bit at the end by the way. And there will be a lot of flashbacks and not a lot of action. Apart from that, please enjoy and leave a review.**

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"I'm sorry, Claire. There's nothing we can do,"

"…Can I stay with him?"

"I don't know… you must know the dangers,"

"I can look after myself thanks,"

"…Alright, he will have to be… terminated though… once it begins,"

"…I just want to be alone with my brother," Where was I? What was going on? Those voices… they were familiar. I could barely make them out though. It was like I was listening to them from the other side of a window.

Even though I had just woken up, I still felt drowsy. My body was cold, almost as if I was suffering the effects of hypothermia. I was so cold. I just wanted warmth.

From somewhere in the outside world I heard a door gently open and close. My hearing was steadily improving as were my other senses but I didn't open my eyes. I couldn't. A hand was placed on mine as I became aware of something soft and squishy beneath me. "I'm here, Chris,"

I knew that voice. A woman's voice and not just any woman's voice. My sister's voice. Claire Redfield.

"…Cla," I breathed, trying to speak, to let her know that I was there too. But my tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth. There was no moisture at all.

"Chris?" she whispered hopefully. I opened my eyes gradually and painfully. Sluggishly my eyes adjusted to the dim light and my sister's face came into view.

"W-what happened?" I struggled out, trying to sit up. A gasp of agony escaped my lips as pain shot through me, emanating from no one point but from everywhere at the same time.

"Don't you remember?" Claire asked. I shook my head and instantly regretted that movement. It felt like a beatnik was playing the drums in my head.

"Well… we were tracking down Wesker's old hideouts, just to make sure no dangerous experiments had been left behind. We were in an old abandoned nuclear bunker built during the cold war for the worst case scenario happening. As per usual, the place was quiet, had no electricity and was just downright creepy."

"That always seems to be the case," I muttered, trying to move from my laying-down position to an upright one with agonising difficulty. Anyone else but Claire would have immediately tried to shove me back down, but she knew I wouldn't want to lie down like a helpless puppy, regardless of how much pain was caused trying to move, so she helped instead. "Thanks,"

"My pleasure," Claire replied from her position on a wooden chair next to my bed. She was smiling sadly at me. _What is she so unhappy for?_

Before I could ask my question aloud, Claire had begun her story again. "Anyway, big, underground, creepy lair where our walkie-talkies were bound to cut out at some point and five of us wandering around trying not to admit we were lost. The further we walked in, the more nervous we got. Their was a definite smell of decay in the air and we were all seriously hoping whatever was giving off that smell was actually dead and I mean actually dead."

"Not the case?" I asked shifting slightly so I could lean against the old, concrete wall my bed was conveniently right next to. Flashes of Claire and me along with Leon and two other people I didn't know, walking down damp, putrid, underground tunnels was starting to come back to me.

"Unfortunately, no. Three of the quickest, strongest un-dead I'd ever seen appeared out of nowhere and killed Justin. None of us really knew him or his partner, Max, but within seconds, both of them were dead and we finally had the sense to actually shoot. Leon managed a headshot on one, you hit one in the chest and I… I missed the third one and it leapt at me,"

Claire paused at this point and the memories hit me like a runaway cart would.

==Flashback==

_'God, this place is creepy' I thought while scanning the corridor for even a slight movement of dust. Leon crept beside me as our fellow team mates slinked behind us. The disgusting smell of decay was heavy in the air and I couldn't shake off the ominous feeling wrapping around me like a thick blanket. _

_It was then that it happened. _

_One moment we were all skulking down a seemingly deserted tunnel and the next the man called Justin was screaming like a madman. Everyone spun round apart from Justin's friend, Max since before he could a dark shape tackled him and began sinking its hands into his flesh and he was dead within an instant. _

_The stench of death was worse than ever as Leon, Claire and I realised we had been ambushed by a bunch of freaking zombies. After we got over the initial shock of that strange fact, each of us raised our M92Fs simultaneously and fired. _

_Leon got an instant headshot and a tiny, hysterical part of mind I was usually extremely good at controlling was currently screaming 'Headshot! Fifty points to player one!' (1) _

_I wasn't so lucky and aimed a little too low, hitting the 'super zombie' in the chest which at least slowed him down a little while the hysteria reacted to my use of the word 'super zombie' and began squealing ' who has kryptonite!'. What the hell was wrong with me? _

_Claire unfortunately missed altogether. It probably had something to do with the fact the one she aimed for moved the instant we fired and rushed straight at her. In my mind the brotherly voice in my head had squashed the hysteria and was shouting 'CLAIRE'._

_In an instant I had abandoned all rational thought and without hesitation, I jumped in front of my sister. The zombie barrelled into me with more force than I expected and knocked me off my feet. Claire dived out of the way as Leon took care of the one I had previously shot and turned his attention to the current situation everyone was probably more interested in. _

_I wrestled with the zombie that was showing an almost scary bout of unnatural strength. The sound of a shot bounced of the colourless walls and the un-dead was pushed to the side by the force of the bullet. Seeing my chance, I attempted to throw the rotting fleshed being completely off me and give Claire and Leon a clear shot. _

_Instead, the super zombie recovered quicker than within the category 'likelihood' and pulled me back towards it. Before I could counter, a searing pain in my arm made me cry out and shots were fired before I could register what had caused it…_

==End Flashback==

"It… it g-got me… didn't it?" I asked. I wished so badly Claire would shake her head, smile and say that wasn't the case. I hated how ironic it was to spend my entire life killing those infected by the virus only to end up being a victim of it. I couldn't stop the agony that filled my heart to add to my already tortured body as Claire simply looked at the ground and told me all I needed to know.

Steeling myself, I looked down towards my left arm where, sure enough, a pristine white bandage hid the horror that lay beneath it.

"What happened… after?" I asked quietly.

"Leon and I killed the last one and then… then we had to shoot Justin and Max in the head to make sure… then we got the hell out of there… Max was twenty for God's sake!"

I gritted my teeth together at the sound of Claire's distraught voice when a revolting feeling took hold of me. Have you ever had the feeling when you see someone else vomiting and the sight makes you want to vomit too? Then the smell hits you and it only makes things worse. That's what I felt at that moment and I couldn't stop myself leaning over to the side, arching my back and spewing out an unnerving amount of blood.

"Oh God! Chris, are you alright?" Claire asked standing up and putting a hand on my shoulder. I almost gave a sarcastic reply in return but stopped when the smell of my blood hit me. I couldn't shake the feeling it smelled weird. Stale. Decayed.

I spat out another clump of blood before leaning back against the wall and closing my eyes. Claire shifted to sit beside me on the bed and before I could register what was going on, my little sister wrapped her arms around my head and pulled me into her chest, leaving her arms gently hugging my neck.

"You should… really get out of here…" I rasped out painfully. "You know… what is gonna happen… you're being… reckless…"

Claire snorted slightly. "I'm the one who's reckless?" she asked sceptically but gently. "You're the one who deliberately jumped in front of a zombie. Idiot,"

I chuckled with my sister as I realised the truth of her statement. Silence entered the small room which I decided to examine in the absence of anything to say. It was small and colourless but had an almost sterilised feel to it. In front of us was an iron door with a keypad to open. I wondered why I didn't hear it being used when that other person left the room. It sounded like Leon. Probably was. As to where we were, some special ops base in the middle of nowhere to make sure no-one saw… _me_.

"Chris?"

"…hmm?"

"Can… can you speak to me, Chris?" Claire asked. Was her voice shaking? _Claire doesn't cry or even begin to cry. That's like saying it's possible to slam a revolving door. It's just not done. She barely cried when our parents were killed in that car crash…_

"I don't really… have anything to say," I answered quietly. More blood was climbing my oesophagus and I coughed on it, splattering my diseased body fluid on to Claire's arms but she didn't move.

"Just… tell me things,"

"What things?"

"Anything,"

More blood came up my throat, into my mouth and trickled down my chin but it was less than last time. I moaned as my chest began to throb. Claire moved one of her hands lower and began moving it in rhythmic circles on my torso.

With some effort, I brought my hand up and squeezed my sister's hand. "It hurts…"

"What does?"

"Everything…" I muttered. "Life itself… is so filled with pain…"

"I guess that's just how things work," Claire whispered. "Tell me happy things, Chris…"

"Happy things?" I smiled slightly. "Alright… D'you remember… the first time we played together?"

"Of course I do," Claire answered in a tone that made my situation seem a tiny bit less dire. "It was the summer and your mates were away on holiday so mom told you to play with me,"

"…And we played… cops and robbers," I said, smiling at the memory.

==Flashback== (Chris is telling this to Claire)

_"Mom," I whined in my nine-year old voice. "Why do I have to play with Claire? Why can't dad play?" _

_"Chris, your dad is away fighting the bad men and putting them behind bars where they belong. And Claire isn't going to bight your fingers off," my mom replied while cleaning the dishes. _

_"But she's three! You can't have fun with a three-year old!" I moaned while scratching my brown hair. _

_"You'd be surprised. Go on, Chris, she's in the garden," _

_I sighed as I trudged into the sunlit garden where my sister was currently trying to sneak up on a butterfly. A wicked idea came to my mind and I crept up behind her. When I was close enough to touch I yelled, "BOO!" _

_Claire screamed, spun round and promptly fell on her butt. I roared with laughter while my sister struggled up and began hitting me with less force than a fly. "Not funny, Kwis!" (2) _

_"My name is Chris! Not 'Kwis'!" I retorted. My sister 'hmphed' before turning round with her arms folded. The little look of outrage on her face struck me as inexpressibly funny and I almost began laughing again but I caught my mother's eye and instead grinned sheepishly. _

_Sighing with resignation, I tapped Claire on the shoulder. "I'm sorry Claire. Can I play with you please?" _

_Claire half turned to look at me, her expression softening and she said, "Okay… but I get to choose the game!" _

_I groaned inwardly. 'I hope she doesn't mention anything about tea parties'. Shuddering at the thought, I nodded to show I approved… sort of. _

_"I choose… Oh, oh! Cops and robbers!" she squeaked. My heart lifted and I instantly yelled, "I'm the cop!" _

_"I wanna be the cop!" Claire whined. _

_"The oldest always gets to be the cop," I explained in a matter-of-fact tone. "So when you're the oldest, you get to be the cop," _

_My sister cheered as I chuckled inwardly. 'She's never gonna be older than me!' "Okay, you go hide and I'll count to ten!" I said and Claire ran of giggling while I covered my eyes. Ten seconds later, I re-opened them and looked around. To my left came a high pitched giggle and I smiled. _

_In a loud stage voice, I called out, "Hmm, I wonder where Claire could be?" the giggling to my left intensified and I crept towards an overturned box where I knew she had to be. "Gotcha!" I yelled as I pulled the box up in one motion to reveal my brunette sister. _

_At my discovery, my sister managed to scream hysterically and laugh at the same time as she struggled up and began running as fast as her little legs would carry her. I caught up with her easily and swung her round in the air before falling over and hugging my sister close all the while laughing. _

_'I suppose mom is right. You can have fun with a three-year old'._

==End Flashback==

"That had been the most fun I ever had at that time," Claire said, giggling slightly. "The first time I played with my brother,"

I was smiling too. It had been funny to hear her constantly giggling, not to mention how over dramatic she was when she was younger. For a moment everything seemed normal until an unexpected shot of pain dosed my body. I quickly struggled out of Claire's grip and turned to the side as blood began flowing out of my mouth in random bursts.

As I leaned back against the wall when the puking stopped, an awful epiphany hit me. 'It's really gonna end like this'.

"I'm gonna die…" I whispered. I don't know if I would have admitted it, but I actually was terrified. Of course I had faced death before but there was always a slim chance I would make it. This time however, there was no hope at all.

"No your not," Claire said firmly. "Not now your not… you just can't,"

I rolled my head to the side so I could look at my sister's face. She wasn't quite crying, but she was the closest I'd seen her in a while. "…Always know the right thing to say,"

Claire smiled her beautiful smile. I'd never truly noticed how stunning she looked until now. Weird how things happen in the end.

"And you always know the right way to act," Claire answered. Silence reigned again for a moment before my sister spoke again. "Chris… could you speak some more?"

I thought for a second while heaving out another heap of blood. It felt like someone was wrenching my organs out one by one. It really hurt, a lot. "Well… since we're on the subject of… 'Know when to act'… I remember when I was fourteen…"

==Flashback== (Last)

_Simon Morrow. The boy nobody wanted to be friends with. The outcast in a wolf pack, the black person amongst the white people or the Wesker in a land of cheesy puffs. (3) His straw-coloured hair was greasy and his skin was apparently cold and damp. _

_Every school had someone like this. The kids who were constantly bullied for no reason, the kids nobody else wanted to help, the kids who were the main reason of teen suicides. _

_It was a Wednesday morning just before the bell was due to ring and everyone was sitting, talking to their friends, doing forgotten homework or cramming in revision for an end of year test. I was one of those simply talking when a boy a couple of years above us walked in. _

_Devon 'Dev' Taylor was the main bully in the whole school. You wanted to go take a pee? You had to have a dollar or you weren't allowed in. __If you were elected for something like a hall monitor you could expect a wedgie in the near future. And if you were Simon Morrow you didn't go a day without being punched, teased, humiliated and, on some occasions, being pushed into a locker. _

_"Oi! Morrow, you have five dollars I could borrow," it wasn't a question. It was a threat hidden in the subtext. What Dev was actually saying was, "You give me five dollars and you'll get off lightly," _

_Simon instantly turned pale as the class turned silent to witness the events. Notice the keyword 'witness'. Nobody ever helped Simon out and frankly, I was sick of it. _

_"I-I don't have f-five d-d-dollars," Simon stuttered out. Did I mention he had a stutter? When he was under pressure it usually just got worse. _

_Dev's cheery demeanour vanished in an instant. Slowly he advanced towards Simon, menace drenching his every move. "What did you just say?" _

_"He said he hasn't got five dollars dickhead," I snapped, surprising even myself. Everyone turned to look at me now but I didn't shrink back. 'Time to put an end to this, once and for all!' _

_"D'you have a death wish Redfield?" Dev snarled. He knew my name huh? How flattering. _

_"No, I just stated the obvious. Not my fault if you don't have enough brains to realise that," I retorted standing up and walking towards the older boy. Although I was quite tall for my age the height difference between us was almost laughable. _

_I held my ground though. No-one deserved to be treated that way. "What's your problem Redfield? Nobody cares about this loser. He doesn't have any friends!"_

_"Yes he does," I answered. Tearing my gaze from the bully I walked straight past him and held out my hand for Simon to shake. Simon looked at it, then at me, then at Dev and then back at my hand. Behind me I could hear Dev laughing. "You're not the only one who isn't afraid to smash a face in," I snarled, spinning round to face Dev again. _

_The tormentor growled. I instantly knew I had gone too far but I couldn't back down now. "What's the matter Taylor? Scared to do it in front of witnesses?" I goaded. _

_In return, Dev walked straight up to me and grabbed my collar. "I'll let you off easy this time Redfield, but if you ever do anything like this again, you can kiss your pretty face goodbye!" With that ominous promise, the boy turned and slouched out the classroom. _

_Nobody moved, too shocked at what had happened. I was the first to regain some control. I turned back to Simon and held out my hand again. "The offer still stands… friends?" _

_Simon smiled and this time didn't hesitate to grasp my hand, and his small hand wasn't clammy or cold. It was warm, flesh and bone. It was human. _

_"Friends,"_

==End Flashback==

I stopped talking as I got a lump in my throat. _I never thought it would take me dying to turn sentimental…_

More blood glissaded up my throat. I felt like I was being torn up from the inside out. Maybe that was what was happening. "Claire…"

"Hm?"

"Why is it… taking so long… why did I… wake up again?" I rasped out through all the blood.

My sister didn't move. "Maybe Wesker created those zombies to make people suffer more," she said quietly, glancing at the blood soaked sheet we were sitting on.

I was too tired to do anything else. Simply staying awake was an effort but I had to stay awake. No way was it going to end like this. It just… wasn't right. But everything pointed in the opposite direction to my thoughts. The cold spreading through my body, the pain ransacking my body, the amount of blood I was losing yet still I lived. If this wasn't death, I hated to think what actual death would be like…

"Claire?"

"Yeah, Chris,"

"I-I'm scared," My sister merely stared at me. Well it was true. I couldn't hide it. I didn't want to hide it.

"Chris…" I looked up at Claire painfully to see tears streaking down her cheeks. Slowly she reached across and hugged me the same way as before. "I'm scared too, Chris… You don't have to be alone in this,"

Oh God. My vision was starting to fade! Fuck. This was really it. I couldn't believe it. On the bright side, the pain and cold was starting to melt away leaving a deliciously numb feeling. I suppose my only regret was leaving Claire behind. My face felt wet and I realised I was crying. What? They were manly tears…

Claire's voice was the last thing I heard before darkness ruled over my brain.

"You will not die, Chris"

_I won't die..._

==Unknown P.O.V==

No matter what, I always planned ahead. After I was done planning, I double checked every detail and then I triple checked it. I left nothing to chance.

But there was always that one little factor I never could predict the outcome of. Chris Redfield. A worthy rival, for lack of a better word. So many times I could have killed him. Yet I never did. To this day, I still don't know why. Everyone needs someone to hate, I suppose.

This time though, he had gone too far. Twisting my mouth up into a smirk I surveyed the BSAA compound located in Nevada. They have no idea I was watching them. I decided I liked it better this way.

My eyes fell on the screen projecting the Redfield siblings. Poor Chris… he had no chance this time.

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**(1) The whole hysteria thing was simply adding some humour  
****(2) Yeah a bit random 'Kwis' but I couldn't imagine Claire saying 'Chris' at that age so instead I just went with it. Plus it's so cute!  
****(3) Not trying to be racist by the way. I'm just saying a black person would stand out more in a sea of white people. Like a white person would stand out in a sea of black people. Beside, even if I was trying to be racist, which I'm not, RE 5 already kind of beat me to it. Still a good game though.  
And that is it! Hoped you liked it. Probably not the best story ever but who cares? I know this is a one shot yet I left it on a 'lot's of questions hanging' kind of ending (like Cloverfield) but since it's a challenge I wanted to leave it open. Please leave a review, good or bad!**


	2. Challengingness

**So for challenge people, here's the challenge:**

***Random Drumroll***

**Make a story with this one-shot as your first chapter!**

**Rules**

**No real rules. You can make Chris die or survive, you can have Wesker there and you can even _slightly (slightly) _tweak this chapter _(Only as much as you need though and if you want to re-write it with your writing style, try and keep it as simialr as possible)_. HOWEVER, the person at the end MUST be the same. So if you want to write a story using this as a basis, PM me first and I shall tell you who the big bad person is. Otherwise, run free!**


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